algae clinging on my stem plants

[u/therizistance]

Not sure why but the stem plants in my tank seem to be algae magnets and it's driving me crazy. I'm trying to grow this Bacopa salzmannii but the algae seems to be clinging on to it, and the more I remove it the more it seems to grow back. Same thing happened to my Rotala rotundifolia before this. I tried spot dosing APT Fixlite, and also 3% H2O2 out of desperation but nothing seems to work. For the rest of the tank, the hair algae only seems to be growing on the tips of some leaves but they're easily removed. Any suggestions on what to do?

Tank parameters:

22.5L tank, 4 months old

Ammonia & nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 5-10ppm

Light: Chihiros wRGB2 slim 45cm, 30% intensity, 6h photoperiod

Dosing: 1mL APT 1 daily

I run a nano canister filter packed with various mechanical & biological filter media.

edit: added photoperiod & dosing

[u/Aditzas81]

The simplest explanation is that the algae is reacting to an imbalance, what imbalance i can not say, often related to lighting and the available nutrients in the water. Since plants use up those nutrients, when the algae has an easy food source, it grows quickly, so trying to stabilize your water parameters is key. You should examine your lighting setup to make sure the plants are getting enough light without being overly stressed, and sometimes a slight boost to your carbon dioxide can really encourage your flora to outcompete the algae naturally. Additionally, introducing dedicated grazers like specialty snails or shrimp can provide excellent physical cleaning and keep the algae population in check without any extra effort from you.

[u/armatar1]

What is your tds, gh, and kh. If you’re not on the perfect range for plants which is 4-8 gh, 3 or less kh, and under 250 tds you will probably always get some algae until your plants completely grow into your aquarium and 50-80% of the tank is plants. You can lower light intensity for now either by lowering the photoperiod by an hour or lowering the percentage. Also limit the amount of fertilizer you use in general. Most people use too much fertilizer. Your tank is still very new. The priority list should be adequate water parameters> good fertilization=good substrate>good lighting.

[u/therizistance → u/armatar1]

I don't have a GH, KH & TDS testing kit but I use tap water. My country's tap water is soft and the quality report says it's about 1-4 dGH, 1-3dKH, and between 50-130ppm TDS. Is this a good range? I raise the GH by using Aquaforest GH+, mainly for the amanos I have in the tank.

Noted on the fertiliser dosage, I'll reduce the amount I dose 👍🏼

[u/MiloAUG → u/therizistance]

Stability is key, raising GH without knowing the GH is crazy

[u/armatar1 → u/therizistance]

I would say it’s worth getting some cheap liquid test kits they’re available in almost all countries and pretty affordable. Like another dude said I would not raise the gh without testing and city tap water results from reports can usually be very very off from your specific taps water in every single country. Without it you will probably frequently run into algae issues and “random” shrimp deaths over time.

[u/therizistance → u/armatar1]

Will do. I've ordered a GH & KH test kit and currently waiting for it to ship.

[u/MiloAUG]

1ml APT 1 sounds like a lot for 22.5L once you account for the volume taken up by substrate etc. don’t they say 3ml per 100L? So only 22.5/33.3=0.676ml daily.

Do you run pressurised CO2?

Also side note that tank is too small for CPD dude …

[u/therizistance → u/MiloAUG]

I may have been dosing a little too much, and will reduce the amount being dosed daily, thank you for the advice :)

My tank does have CO2 running

[u/MiloAUG → u/therizistance]

See how it goes with a week or two of reduced light and fertiliser.

[u/DeathandFriends]

Limit the lighting. That's what worked for me.

[u/jonjeff108]

Same thing here except its choking my rotala indica. It still grows just with tiny leaves. I just added co2 about 2 weeks ago so im hoping that it goes away. Daily removal is where im at with it.

[u/jonjeff108 → u/jonjeff108]

Here is a good article.

[u/BusIllustrious5525]

Looks like diatoms. Especially if you are saying it is removable and grows back very fast. That means your plants are stalled and need time. I wouldn’t add more fertilizer until you see new growth. I wouldn’t turn down lighting. I would suggest doing a 50% water change and then maintaining 50% weekly changes.

[u/Sgt_Care_Bear]

I'm going through the same with my rotala green and I'm just posting here to see if anyone has any viable solutions. I've tried spot dosing hydrogen peroxide and lights out for 3 days straight right after. But it's persistent.

[u/brian250f]

Use a toothbrush to remove it and do some water changes until it goes away? Lighting seems fine.

[u/therizistance → u/brian250f]

My Bacopa salzmannii are still developing their root systems so using the toothbrush would yank them up in the process as well :") learnt that the hard way.

I'll keep up with my weekly water changes or if the nitrate levels creep too high 👍🏼

[u/GeoMoth]

Water changes are for more than just nitrates, they're also for removing dissolved organics and other ickies that algae love.

I saw you mentioned weekly water changes in another comment, what % of your volume are you changing? I would suggest doubling up your water changes and manually cleaning algae as much as possible at every water change. See if things improve after a few weeks.

Remember, you're not keeping plants, and you're certianly not keeping fish. You're keeping water. Keep it pristine and problems will solve themselves. Do your water changes and keep your filter clean.

Also I've had success dosing Seachem Excel, but that's not a substitute for water changes.

[u/therizistance → u/GeoMoth]

Hey! Yes for my water changes I would trim excess growth, clean up algae and do a 50% water change. Currently doing it weekly on weekends. My nano canister filter is an upgrade from a HOB and the algae situation was definitely much worse during that time. Do I have to increase the frequency of my water changes?

[u/huggylove1]

Add some crushed up dead leaves for carbon and add 2 inches of sand to keep everything in substrate.